Playing with the Richmond Symphony

After 3 years of struggling and fighting every day to rebuild my face, I decided last fall (2009) to send my resume to a few area orchestras.  Fortunately, I must have sent it at just the right time.  Within 2 days of sending it out, the personnel manager at the Richmond Symphony called and asked if I could sub on a pops concert.  I was ecstatic!  I was also terrified beyond belief.  I have played with pro orchestras in the past, so it wasn't a complete shock, but I haven't dared play in a group like this since my chops broke.  Fortunately, given that it was a pops concert, there wasn't near as much pressure.  Of course, I still had to go get a massage because I was so tied up in knots over it!

So, I went to the first rehearsal.  My first impressions - MAN this orchestra is young!  The vast majority of this orchestra was below 40.  Many of the players were below 30.  The conductor, Erin Freeman, is a pretty well known conductor and a great one at that.  She was very efficient at running the rehearsals and managed to pull out every bit of musicality from the Harry Potter Suite and The Composer Is Dead.  The pieces weren't difficult, but there was plenty of exposed horn stuff.  The principal, Rachel, is a GREAT player.  She's young and has seemingly invincible chops.  The guy playing second, Kelly, is another great horn player who plays in one of the service bands in DC (he's also the guy who sold me the Kuhn pipe that I now use on my horn).  The guy playing forth, Matt, another service band guy from the Norfolk area did a great job carrying 4th.

The job was not that challenging and ultimately, I played fine.  Of course, the proof isn't in whether I can actually play the gig, but whether I can get a call-back.  Well...fortunately, the call back came.  (Thanks Rachel!  You rock!)  I got the call to come play 2nd on the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Ballet with the RSO and the Richmond Ballet.  The show is 3 hours of solid playing with 9 total services.  The first day was a single rehearsal.  The second through 4th days had 2 services each.

The piece isn't terribly difficult, but it's highly romantic in harmony, melody and rhythm.  The conductor is a very nice guy, but very difficult to follow.  It's hard to tell where the downbeats are as well as what pattern is being conducted.  However, he is very consistent, so I've gotten used to it after a few rehearsals.  Sadly, I've made my fair share of mistakes in these shows, most of which have been counting (which I partly blame on the difficult-to-follow beats and partly accept for loss of concentration).  However, I'm playing the parts fine.  Tuning is working out well, blend is good and balance is great.  Rachel is again playing principal and leading the section well.  She's quite easy to follow.

On top of the wonderful experience, I must say that everyone that I've met and talked to while here both for this most recent concert and the previous concert have been wonderful!  There doesn't seem to be an over-inflated ego in the bunch.  They're great musicians and genuinely kind and funny people.  I could see myself with a group like this!

The good news is that there's a vacancy and there's an audition coming up in just a couple months.  I haven't decided if I'm going to audition or not.  While the spot would be a dream come true, there's no way I could replace my existing job with the symphony job - not if I want to keep my house and my car.  The pay is great, don't get me wrong.  If I were a few years younger and hadn't gotten used to the wonderful pay of the government contracting world, I wouldn't hesitate.  On top of that, there are some great players auditioning for that spot too.  I simply wouldn't stack up to them.  However, my yearly goal is to audition successfully - perhaps I need to try, despite my hesitations.

At least for the foreseeable future, I hope to get more call backs and continue to sub with this great orchestra.